Usually, con artists working the Advance Fee Fraud angle will promise untold wealth. This one, from Thea in Maryborough, promise something a lot more valuable…your life.
I felt very sorry and bad for you, that your life is going to end like this if you don’t comply, I was paid to eliminate you and I have to do it within 10 days.
Someone you call your friend wants you dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this, the person came to me and told me that he wants you dead and he provided me your names, photograph and other necessary information i needed about you. If you are in doubt with this I will send you your name and where you are residing in my next mail.
Meanwhile, I have sent my boys to track you down and they have carried out the necessary investigation needed for the operation, but I ordered them to stop for a while and not to strike immediately because I just felt something good and sympathetic about you. I decided to contact you first and know why somebody will want you dead by all means. Right now my men are monitoring you, their eyes are on you, and even the place you think is safer for you to hide might not be.
Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? It is up to you. Get back to me now if you are ready to enter deal with me, I mean life trade, who knows, and I might just spear your life, $5,000 is all you need to spend. You will first of all pay $3000 then I will send the tape of the person that want you dead to you and when the tape gets to you, you will pay the remaining $2000. If you are not ready for my help, then I will have no choice but to carry on the assignment after all I have already being paid before now.
Warning: do not think of contacting the police or even tell anyone because I will extend it to any member of your family since you are aware that somebody want you dead, and the person knows some members of your family as well.
For your own good I will advise you not to go out once is 7pm until I make out time to see you and give you the tape of my discussion with the person who want you dead then you can use it to take any legal action. Good luck as I await your urgent reply:
Bye.
Mr Mohammed Salim
Special Killer of al Qaeda
After all, we all have enemies and skeletons in the closet. How many people can swear beyond all doubt that there isn’t someone out there who wants us dead?
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used to tell a story about just this.
[From "Storyettes," The Commercial Appeal [Memphis, Tennessee], 2 October 1897, Pg. 7, Col. C.]
“A friend of his who had often been told that there is a skeleton in the cupboard of every household, no matter how respectable that household may be; and he determined to put his opinion to a practical test. Selecting for the subject of this experiment a venerable archdeacon of the church, against whom the most censorious critic had never breathed a word, he went to the nearest postoffice [sic] and dispatched this telegram to the reverend gentleman: “All is discovered! Fly at once!” The archdeacon disappeared and has never been heard of since. “
-From “Storyettes,” The Commercial Appeal [Memphis, Tennessee], 2 October 1897, Pg. 7, Col. C.
Remember It’s A Wonderful Life? When Jimmy Stewart offered to lasso the moon for Donna Reed?
If you love that saccharine stuff, you’re going to love the latest swindle to rear its head in Australia.
Swindlers are claiming they can sell you a chunk of the moon, offering lunar land packages at sixty bucks per square kilometre.
The company, Moontastic, is doing the same thing that American star and lunar sellers have been doing for years, selling off property that the owner can never actually claim.
The whole scam reminds me of Gregor McGregor, the Scottish con man from the nineteenth century who invented a fictional country called Poyais. 240 victims paid to settle the new country. 180 of them died looking for the non-existent land.
Once you’ve paid the earth for the moon, you get a certificate that the company owner calls “a bonafide statements of intention to own.” You don’t own it, you just ‘intend’ to own it. In the same way that I ‘intend’ to lose 10 kilos and do my taxes on time.
The scam isn’t illegal but the secretary of the Space Industry Association of Australia Michael Davis said it best.
“Just because there is no law prohibiting something does not mean it is lawful and legitimate.”
Or maybe I’m just a cold hearted old cynic who can’t see this for the romantic gesture that it is.
The music on the show is eclectic Americana, with Old Time music, cowboy, blues, jazz, jug band, string band, ukelele and eccentric music from the 1890’s to the 1930’s.
Each selection is chosen for its medicinal qualities, creating a perfect prescription for healing the stress and purging the infelicities of the 21st Century.
An age old scam, The Rocks In The Box has been resurrected by a con man in the UK.
The swindler offered to sell two men two laptops and three iphones for £1,000. The men checked out the gear and agreed to buy the merchandise.
It was only when they were far away did they realize he had swapped the bag of electronics for a bag of rocks.
Legend tells use the scam goes back to medieval times when swindlers would swap a bag of pig for a bag of cat. Hence the saying, the let the cat out of the bag. However, there is no real evidence that this is anything but a bit of fairy tale etymology.
Not to be confused with fairy tale entymology
If you want to see how a professional does, watch the video below.
As I write its just 41 days, 21 hours and 54 minutes until Christmas.
Which can mean only one thing. It’s time for my annual Christmas wish list.
All of the scam related paraphernalia and literature missing from my collection.
This year, I have my eye on three things you can buy me.
1) Steve Forte’s Casino Protection
Steve Forte is the world’s leading expert on card cheating and this is his bible. It contains a lifetime of work on every move, gimmick and gambit used to separate casinos from their money. Steve also produced a 4 DVD set of him performing incredible card cheating sleights and companion book called Poker Protection but sadly, I do not own this book.
It’s out of print so be prepared to pay up to $200 for a copy. Of course, if you love me, you’ll do it.
2) Smokey Mountain Shagbark Shells
If $200 is too much to spend on me, why get a set of these beautiful shells for me. Sure, I have over 40 sets of shells used to play this classic swindle but these are among the best. Don’t let their rough and tough plain exterior fool you. These are a thing of beauty.
And they’ll on set you back $47.50.
The Notorious Roscoe from Biloxi performing with the shells
3) The Con Man - Ed McBain
Seriously? You won’t spend $50 on me. Fair enough, if you’re a cheapskate then you can buy me a copy of this book by Ed Mcbain from the 1950s. It’s a fun read. A con man is swindling new yorkers while a serial killer knocks off beautiful woman. The real joy of these books, as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, is the fantastic covers. I have six different editions of this book and I’d love a seventh.
You can find this book on ebay or at abebooks for just a few bucks.
Any con man historian will tell you the etymology of the phrase “to let the cat out of the bag.”
The story goes that back in olden days that marketplace livestock sellers would sell pigs in bags. However, often they would sell cats in the sacks instead of pigs.
If someone opened the bag too early, the scam was uncovered.
However, the kill joys over at urban myth testing website snopes have done a little research and, combining it with a little commonsense have shown up the story as a fraud.
First, a cat is a different size to a pig. Even a piglet is going to out weigh the biggest cat.
Second, cats will hiss and scratch and spit while pigs will squirm and squeal.
Third, if the scam was so popular that it entered into the common language through the phrase ‘let the cat out of the bag’ then that would mean that thousands and thousands of people would have been so stupid as to not notice the switch.
The link to the world of the scams and this particular saying more than likely comes from the say “when buying a pig, open the poke”.
It’s a nice story but it just isn’t true.
But at least I got show you some pictures of cats.
I’ve just finished reading The Grifters by Jim Thompson and also recently watch The Flim Flam Man starring George C Scott. Both are highly recommend and both feature the classic keyed punchboard scam.
A punchboard is block of wood or cardboard, perhaps 2-3 cm thick. Drilled in the surface of the block are dozens of tiny holes. The block is covered with a label that covers the holes with a number.
The player pays a small fee to the owner, usually a shopkeeper or bartender, and then punches a hole in one of the numbers with a small punch. If he wins, a small piece of paper pops out of the back telling the player how much he has won.
Many manufacturers would offer for sale ‘keyed punch boards’.
These punch boards would come complete with a key, telling the owner where the winning numbers were. That way, the shopkeeper or bartender could remove the winning numbers in advance.
Often con artists would buy these punchboards in bulk. They would sell the punch board for a few dollars to the shopkeeper. A short time later, his accomplice would come by and win the top prize.
According to punchboard.com (yes, that website exists) at the height of the punchboard’s popularity, dishonest boards outnumbered to honest ones.
